Maynard, MA, USA: Beacon-Villager newspaper column on local history, observations on nature and recreational activities, plus an occasional health-related article. Columns from 2009-11 collected into book "MAYNARD: History and Life Outdoors." Columns from 2012-14 collected into book "Hidden History of Maynard." - David A. Mark

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Wednesday, January 11, 2017

The Delaney Complex, Stow, MA

The Delaney Complex, also referred to as the Delaney
Project, applies to two earthen dams in Stow and
Bolton that provide flood control on Great
Brook and Elizabeth Brook. These were completed in 1971. The larger dam is in
the northwest corner of Stow.
It creates a permanent pond with a surface area of 163 acres. It times of heavy
rain the water-covered area expands to surrounding marsh and lowlands to cover
as much as 397 acres. Surrounding the pond is a wildlife conservation area. The
whole encompasses 580 acres in Stow, Harvard, Bolton and a wee bit in Boxborough.

The Delaney Complex serves three functions: flood control,
wildlife preserve, and recreational use for boating, fishing, hunting and
hiking. There are many rules applying to the Delaney - a state Wildlife
Management Area - including no alcoholic beverages, no fires, no overnight
camping, etc. Example, "Any person aboard a canoe or kayak between
September 15 and May 15 shall wear at all times a Type I, II or III Coast Guard
approved personal flotation device."

Dog rules for Delaney Complex

Dogs are allowed (unlike in the federal Assabet River
National Wildlife Refuge), but one rule that irks many people is the 2008 Stow decision
that all dogs must be leashed and owners required to pick up after their dogs,
enforced by a $50 fine. The rationale for this was that dog owners were using
the grassy area and main path leading from the boat launch parking lot as a dog
park, to the annoyance of people who pass through to get to the hiking
trails.

Flood control areas (marked "Fc" on maps) are
designed to either retain a permanent pool of water, such as at Delaney and
Nichols (the headwaters of the Assabet River) or to be dry except in times of
heavy rainfall or snowmelt, such as at Tyler Dam, also on the Assabet. All
told, the AssabetRiver and its tributaries
have ten flood control dams - the two in Delaney and eight others.
Collectively, these dams can hold back up to four billion gallons of water, and
by doing so, reduce downstream flood damage by millions of dollars.

In 2015 the federal National Resources Conservation Service
evaluated all dams on the Assabet and tributaries and decided that six needed work (Nichols had work done in 2012). This included $2.9 million
to modify the auxiliary spillway of the Delaney Dam and to raise the height of
the East Bolton Dam by 3.5 feet. These projects will increase flood holdback
capacity of the Delaney Complex.

Stow Conservation Trust has descriptions of trails, with
maps, posted at http://www.stowconservationtrust.org/trails.php. The listings
include two trail walk guides for the Delaney area. However, parking for both
is supposed to be at Finn Road,
Harvard. The area in question is a bit west of the Stow:Harvard border sign. It is very small,
currently iced over and presumably soon to be snowed over. Come spring thaw, a
good guess is that it is a morass of mud. This leaves as the only realistic
parking the lot at the boat launch site, next to Harvard Road, in Stow. From there, the south set of trails can
be accessed by walking to the end of the dam, and then north.

There are unknowns to this column that internet searching
could not solve, but may have answers in the Stow Historical Society records.
Or the memories of people from Stow.
For example, is the area so-named the Delaney Complex/Project because it is
near Delaney Street?
Was the street named for a landowner? If so, who? And was there a Delaney Farm
before it became Delaney Pond? There do not appear to be Delaney family members
buried in any of Stow's
cemeteries, so no clues there.

Flood control structure referred to as a riser. Water enters lower openings,
which are protected by the sets of bars called trash racks. Except in times
of drought this allows some flow into Elizabeth Brook. Only after water level
rises about six feet would it enter the larger opening protected by the top
set of bars, resulting in faster outflow. Click on any photo to enlarge.

The aforementioned walking guides show the network of trails as twisty and
criss-crossy, so even an experienced woods hiker should have a compass or a
cell phone with a compass app. Worst case - the latter will allow you to call
for help, and for rescue to find you. Police reports in the newspaper have on
occasion been about darkness and foul weather descending on people lost in
Delaney.

Odds are this pond is quite shallow, given its man-made nature. By comparison, Walden Pond, formed by glaciers, covers only 61 acres but has a maximum depth of 102 feet.